Season When Stores Wear Costumes, Too

By DAVE CALDWELL

Published: October 29, 2006

IT was a dark and stormy Tuesday afternoon. Ellen McMahon and Christine Odenath, both 16, had slipped past the shrieking ghouls and the blood-splattered, chain-saw-wielding madman at the door.

As the rain fell, the ghouls groaned and the chain saw whined, the girls worked their way to the back to find their own quarry, hanging from a steel rack attached to a black wall.

And now, it was time for them to pay.

No, really -- pay. Money. At the checkout.

The girls, 11th-grade classmates at Kent Place School in Summit, N.J., were costume shopping for a Halloween party. Hoping to dress up as beer garden girls, they had found a pair of gingham dresses for $45 at the Spirit Halloween Superstore, which in September took over a former Office Max off Route 10, adjacent to a busy Costco.

''We went to a smaller store, and they didn't have a big selection,'' Ms. McMahon said.

Ms. Odenath said, ''We knew we could find something here.''

Part of the suburban Halloween ritual, it seems, is to visit such a store for a costume (say, of South Park's Eric Cartman, $49.99, comfortable foam head included) or a party prop (like a timer-controlled fog machine, $39.99).

Plenty of places specialize in Halloween sales. Spirit Halloween, a subsidiary of Spencer Gifts, operates 19 temporary stores in New Jersey, Connecticut, Long Island and Westchester. Fifty-three permanent Party City stores and various independent party stores in the region do their briskest business around Halloween.

Halloween has become big business. According to a survey by the National Retail Federation, Americans are expected to spend nearly $5 billion on Halloween-related items this year, up from $3.29 billion in 2005.

''More and more adults are getting involved with Halloween parties,'' Tonia Farinha, Spirit Halloween's director of marketing, said in a telephone interview. ''You can dress up as any character you want, and a lot of adults seem to enjoy that outlet.''

Spirit Halloween has 434 stores, all temporary, in 46 states. For the second year, the company, which has 30 full-time employees and operates year-round, is also selling items at its Web site, www.spirithalloween.com.

Party City has added three temporary Halloween stores in Connecticut and hired seasonal workers at many of its 500 permanent stores nationwide, said Deborah Radman, a spokeswoman. The average transaction at Party City doubles in September and October, she said.

''It's our biggest season year after year,'' Ms. Radman said. ''We love Halloween. Our stores are like beehives of activity for kids, moms and dads, and young adults.''

The temporary stores have a certain slapdash, no-frills charm. Early last month, Spirit Halloween workers in East Hanover divided the old Office Max. The front half of the harshly lighted store is for retail; the back half is a stockroom.

The cinderblock walls of the front half were covered with black pegboard, so items could be hung. Above the pegboard, corrugated paper created the appearance of a dungeon wall. Setting it up took about two weeks, said the store manager, Chris Patterson.

The chain-saw-wielding madman -- a mannequin -- and the rubbery-skinned ghouls were near the front door. While customers shopped, music was piped in over the speakers (the theme from ''Ghostbusters'' seemed to be a favorite).

The store's work force is temporary. For some employees, it is a second job. Mr. Patterson, who lives in East Orange, also sells insurance. One of his sales clerks, Teddy Konopka, is a 17-year-old junior at Hanover Park High School in East Hanover.

''If you like dealing with people, it's a good place to work,'' he said with a smile. ''But there's a lot of cleaning up to do, too.''

Ms. Farinha said that in each state, sales clerks were paid slightly more than the minimum wage, which is $7.15 in New Jersey, $7.40 in Connecticut and $6.75 in New York. The temporary managers participate in incentive programs. All employees are entitled to a 25 percent discount. Some take a job, buy items at a discount and then quit.

''What are you going to do?'' Mr. Patterson said.

Those who stay for the store's two-month run say they enjoy the job because shoppers tend to be in a good mood.

''When I walked in, I liked what I saw -- I just liked the environment and everything,'' said Guerol Valmont, 22, a West Orange resident who was in his first day on the job. ''I came here thinking that this job was just seasonal, but I'm hoping that they stay here and open something else up.''

Customers say they learned about the store simply by driving past, often to Costco. A tarpaulin with a leering skull and the Spirit Halloween logo hangs over the front door, just below the outline of the letters of the old Office Max sign. The checkout is lined with crime-scene tape held up by plastic devil-style pitchforks.

Although Spirit Halloween and Party City are competitors, customers of one store tend to end up at the other. Nicholas Cetrulo, 10, of Hanover Township, bought his Dr. Zombie costume at Party City a couple of miles east on Route 10; his family stopped by Spirit Halloween for accessories.

''They have more props here,'' his mother, Eileen, said.

The Cetrulos turn their home into a haunted house every Halloween and invite nearly 300 children to a party thrown primarily by Mrs. Cetrulo, who playfully said she liked to consider herself Mrs. Halloween. Trick-or-treating precedes the party.

Nicholas smiled and said: ''I like Halloween better than Christmas. You get to go house-to-house.''

At Spirit Halloween, inventory will be cleared out after Halloween and shipped back to one of the company's warehouses, Ms. Farinha said. In February or March, she said, the company will start looking for store locations for later that year. By late August, the company will have a roster of locations.

Ms. Farinha was one of Spirit Halloween's original employees when the first store opened in 1984 in Castro Valley, Calif., between San Jose and Oakland. She said she had worn many hats -- including witches' -- at the company, which has become a fixture in its own way.

''We have seasonal stores,'' she said, ''but we are a permanent company.''

Photos: MASKED -- Spirit Halloween in East Hanover, N.J., occupying a former Office Max store, where a father and son shopped this month.; GHOULS, GHOULS, GHOULS -- Rubbery fright figures lining an aisle. (Photographs by Nancy Wegard for The New York Times)